Through December, the stock market indexes had fallen a record seven times in a row following Fed policy committee meetings and, in a stunning vote of no confidence, dramatically after the chairman spoke in December.

Pundits have concluded that the Fed has gone from trying to wean markets from cheap credit to promiscuity, giving the equity investors exactly what they want.

Nothing could be further from the truth - money isn't artificially cheap anymore.

Over the last decade, credit markets have changed profoundly. More supply — sluggish growth and endemic structural woes in Europe, China and Japan have increased the dollar's role in global commerce. Consequently foreign investors and central banks are holding more Treasuries and other dollar-denominated securities and bank deposits.

These combine to significantly lower the neutral rate of interest. At 2.4% for the federal funds rate and 4.4% to 4.7% for mortgages, the Fed has found the sweet spot for hitting its 2% inflation target and maintaining a solid pace of economic growth.

For example, as mortgages inched up to 4.9% in November, new home sales tanked but as rates slipped back in December, buyers returned to the market.

In January, the economy created 304,000 jobs and wages were up 3.2% from a year ago but inflation remains remarkably subdued. Employers are finding ways to attract folks who quit looking for work during the Obama years back into the labor market and investing heavily in training to assist the handicapped hold satisfying positions and the unskilled find career paths.

Economists must be playing a lot of games and betting on sports with their hand-held devices and laptops while the rest of humanity is using those to benefit from artificial intelligence. The latest data indicates productivity is clipping along at the 1.2% rate necessary to accommodate wage increases of 3.2% and inflation at or below 2%.

In China, the Communist Party is panicking to do most anything to keep the factories rolling-including never repay loans for its increasingly dominant state-owned enterprises. That pushes down prices everywhere. More broadly, excess capacity abounds for manufacturing worldwide.

Oil and gas prices and the cost of just about everything else that uses that stuff have been pushed down by the shale boom in West Texas, where drilling is getting ever more efficient.